Many credit card companies offer the moon to consumers such as free gifts or reward spending programs, but those perks seemed to be missing in the world of Cryptocurrency, that is, until now. ValueCash is the first Cryptocurrency exchange ecosystem that rewards its users’ earnings and spending.

Los Angeles, CA– Feb 28th2018, ValueCash announced this week that they will be launching an Initial Coin Offering that is sure to stir up the competition in the world of cryptocurrency trading. ValueCash is a decentralized cryptocurrency and exchange where its token holders can make payments for goods and services while simultaneously earning new ValueCash through their purchase and acceptance. ValueCash is doing something never done before by offering rewards based on spending and other ICO’s are taking notice.

The ValueCash team has over 15 years of experience and is comprised of Developers, IT Consultants, Entreprenuers and Cryptocurrency Enthusiasts. The ValueCash Ecosystem is designed to contribute its Distinct Protocol as a key component of the growing Crypto-Economy and a market driving catalyst to reform the existing status quo of the Commerce, Exchange, Escrow Sector and Blockchain Technology as a whole. ValueCash is limited; Decentralized, and Community Driven Cryptocurrency that allows anyone to earn substantial rewards on a successful transaction. ValueCash can be obtained through The PoT Protocol “Proof of Trade”, The POS “Proof of Stake”, and Buying. The PoT protocol is configured to put power into the hands of the Crypto-Community by becoming Validators of their transactions, while also creating 10% new ValueCash coin as a reward.

During a recent press conference, the company spokesperson for ValueCash was quoted as saying, “Cryptocurrency investors and users are going to love this ICO! Unlike other cryptocurrencies, we offer rewards to our users which will have consumers flocking to our exchange. The more users we have, the higher our token price goes, the happier our investors are! It’s an exciting time to be a part of ValueCash.” He went on to say, “We also kept our end users in mind and have been able to develop a blockchain with unmatched speed, security and of course NO transaction fees.”

The ValueCash ICO will open for public sales on March 5th2018. At that time 2 Million tokens will become available at a cost of $1.00 USD per token. Bonuses will also be given out depending on the stage token purchases are made. Once all tokens have been sold the ICO will close.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

The success of any modern project is to some extent measured by the size of its audience. That is what defines how profitable and powerful the proposed service, product, or app will be. The Hamster Marketplace team has developed its own strategy for attracting and retaining users and forming a community around the marketplace, a strategy we will share in this post.

Kickstarter Startups and Their Audience

Hamster Marketplace is oriented toward recent crowdfunding projects from Kickstarter and other similar platforms. According to our estimates, each Kickstarter project in the electronics category has an average audience of 1380 people. If a partnership began between such a vendor and Hamster Marketplace, the former could bring along about one third of its own audience, which is about 460 people. We are citing the most pessimistic figures here to avoid setting these expectations too high.

By attracting their own users, the electronics manufacturers acquire an understandable and convenient retail platform and are freed from the expenses associated with creating their own stores. But much more important is what we call audience interpenetration.

Imagine a situation where one hundred projects bring 460 people each from their own audiences to Hamster Marketplace, offering an easy and convenient way to acquire their products. And these newly minted manufacturers are not just working to further their own product, but also supporting their neighbors: almost all vendors who will operate on Hamster Marketplace have audiences with similar interests. But most important is that the platform will host real manufacturers with their own products, not first-stage startups.

If we reframe this situation in numbers, we have 276 thousand users from just 600 vendors (if funds raised during the crowdsale reach a soft cap of $2 million). According to our estimates, each user will make 0.4 purchases per year, which puts the retail volume of the marketplace for the same period at $14.35 million. If we raise $7 million, we get 900 vendors and an initial audience of 414 thousand buyers (0.5 purchases per person), which gives $26.91 million in sales volume in the first year. As you can see, the higher the number of vendors, the more active the users, due to the exchange of experience and opinions.

From Early Adopters to a Wide Audience

The audience for any project always begins from some core or backbone, which we talked about earlier in attracting the audiences of the vendors themselves. The bigger and more numerous the core, the faster the service will grow and the more successful it will ultimately be. The size of the initial audience at a project’s launch determines how many people will use the service at its peak popularity. Of course, there are known exceptions, where individual projects and their audiences grew practically without end, but in Hamster Marketplace’s case, with it being a niche project, that is physically impossible.

Early adopters on their own are insufficient to form a fully fledged audience, but it is their level of engagement that demonstrates how much the project can be trusted. The average consumer is suspicious and skittish: it’s risky to buy something on a new platform, especially when eBay, Amazon, or AliExpress are right there. It will be the initial audience from vendors that will facilitate the necessary trust in the platform, which will transform into trust from the average consumer.

Classic marketing tools will play a sizable role in this process. Hamster Marketplace is not against using “common” tools for generating leads, using context advertising, spots on mass media, overviews, and other mechanisms for increasing the audience. However, advertising cannot be effective without a real user experience from early users, which the general public can use to make their decision that the platform is worth its attention and trust. To sum up, we are considering the following channels for attracting users:

the manufacturers’ own audience (about 460 people per vendor);

the audience overlap effect due to similar views and interests;

classic lead generation tools;

a competitive and transparent mechanism for the marketplace’s operations.

The only possible path for well-balanced development is to gradually transition from the vendors’ individual audiences to a monolithic community of buyers, a portion of whom came directly from outside.

Internal Mechanics of Hamster Marketplace

Establishing a trusting relationship between buyer and seller is extremely important, but it’s even better when both also have “fallback” systems that are regulated by the marketplace itself as an impartial and independent actor.

We believe that one of the advantages of Hamster Marketplace for buyers will be the blockchain-based intelligent delivery and defect monitoring systems. Why blockchain? First and foremost, because the blockchain is an unchangeable structure that eliminates the very possibility of outside tampering. Blockchain guarantees to buyers that they will receive only complete and truthful information on the manufacturer, and to manufacturers that their merits and flawless work will not remain hidden.

Product uniqueness, transparent operations, and honesty toward users are the principles governing how the decentralized retail platformHamster Marketplaceoperates. And it is these three principles, along with the marketing steps and mechanisms for attracting an audience described above, that will underpin the marketplace’s inevitable success with buyers and tech fans.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Multiversumwas developed to tackle the elephant in the room: the simplistic nature of first generation blockchain. While blockchain has some amazing features – immutability, transparency and security – it has major issues in terms of scalability and speed.

Recent high-profile examples showcased the inefficiencies of the technology. In December, CrypoKitties exposed the fragility of Ethereum, often banded the super computer of blockchain. The entire platform ground to a halt as the craze for CryptoKitties skyrocketed for a few weeks, and then just as suddenly disappeared from view. Transaction speeds were killed and fees climbed dramatically.

Multiversum founder and visionary Andrea Taini discovered blockchain and could see its attraction. “But I could also see its limitations.” he says. “Organizations such as government or large corporates have complex systems with myriad layers of data distributed across the ecosystem. Data is the lifeblood of any corporate but it is not laid out in neat lines of blocks. It is meshed throughout the systems with complex relational links. This is where blockchain falls down. It is not mature or sophisticated enough to work with multilayered companies.”

Taini developed Multiversum technology to address this. The Multiversum blockchain pushes traditional blockchain beyond its current limits, by enhancing the data layer through self-verifying and distributed structures of organized data entities, related one to another by symbolic links.

This technology set the foundations for a decentralized and distributed system of coherent self-verifying transactions: Multiversum blockchain.

Multiversum allows, instead of the existing blockchain simple data model, the creation of a Relational Crypto Database (an advanced and organized data storage solution) which can handle not just a single data-type, but a series of data grouped in graphs of complex data structures related to one another. Relations are now the first-class citizens of the blockchain and are assured by cryptographic methods.

Therefore,Multiversumis an evolved blockchain technology, offering unique features to overcome the previously analyzed inconveniences, with a set a crypto-validation and distribution techniques fit for every environment: administrative, industrial, financial and governmental.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

XinFin Hybrid Blockchain network, which is going through third week of it’s token sale today announced that it’s XDC protocol is equipped to support existing FIAT payment methods, Bitcoin BTC and upcoming nationally issued cryptocurrencies on it’s tradefinex.org platform.

The XDC protocol will also support Ripple’s XRP, Litecoin LTC and Bitcoincash BCH, the four very liquid cryptocurrencies that do not provide smart-contracts capabilities currently.

XinFin is the first of it’s kind hybrid blockchain protocol forked from ethereum and quorum. It is architected to work on PBFT+stake based consensus and clocks 500 TPS currently aiming to clock 2000 TPS by year end. It is aimed at serving the $50 trillion global trade and finance market with it’s marketplace tradefinex.org bringing together global trade associations, buyers, suppliers and financiers as well as the regulatory bodies.

Global trade ecosystem today lacks a credible platform for cross border secure smart contracts, instant payments and mitigation of counter party risks and provision of credit collaterals using digital assets. XinFin’s XDC protocol and the tradefinex.org marketplace has already rolled out minimum viable product that has completed over 10+ pilot projects successfully. The utilization of funds from the token sale will be utilized for ecosystem expansion and growing institutional partnerships.

XinFin has rolled out XDCE, an ERC 20 token with a swappable ratio of 1:1 with XDC protocol that will have more liquidity and wider reach in global markets. It has already raised over $3.5 Million including private sale, institutional contribution and it’s ongoing ICO.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Problems with the current data industry

On 1969 humans landed on the Moon for the first time. Now, less than 50 years later the smartphones in our pockets are over 100 million times more powerful than the computers used on the famous Apollo missions. The incredible advancements in technology have truly taken humans to the next level.

But, with the improvements in technology, there’s also an enormous influx of new data generated. There are over 900 million text messages sent every hour, over 4 million videos watched on Youtube every minute and people nowadays have to deal with over 100 million spam emails every minute. As you might see, we create A LOT of data, and by 2025 the annual data creation will be ten times the amount of the data produced currently.

With that much data produced, our current methods will no longer be viable. We’ll end up in a landscape littered with information while not having sufficient intelligence to process all of it. Already, even the most complex and intelligent AI and data systems struggle to deal with all of the data we create. By 2025 humans will generate over 160,000,000,000,000 GB of data and only 20% of it will be analyzed.

The patented technology of Thought Network tackles the problem from a completely new angle

Thought is a blockchain and AI company backed by Harrisburg University of Science and Technology. While most AI and big data businesses still focus on handling larger and larger amounts of data, Thought’s patented technology takes an entirely new approach – it makes data smart.

By embedding every small bit of data with artificial intelligence, Thought can make ordinary data, that needs applications to become valuable, aware of its origin, its purpose and makes it able to act on its own to complete its task. This new way reduces the need for traditional applications, making data processing cheaper and faster. Instead of communicating with different applications, data can communicate with other pieces of data directly.

“At some point in the future, our current methods of handling data will no longer be feasible to cope with the ever-growing amount of information generated by humanity.” says the CEO of Thought, Professor Andrew Hacker, who has researching and developing the concept of smart data and algorithms for the past six years.

“Smart Data allows us to create a completely new paradigm of active data, where we can do everything more efficiently, intelligently, quickly and securely. Because of our ability to embed intelligence into pieces of data itself, we have the potential to revolutionize both AI and the process by which artificial intelligence is taught.”

By integrating blockchain technology with Smart Data, Thought can make AI more accessible, transparent and above all more secure.

“Every small piece of Smart Data is secured with multi-level encryption. Being able to secure individual bits of data is the Holy Grail of cybersecurity.” Continues Professor Hacker, who, in addition to running Thought Network, is a cybersecurity expert in residence at Harrisburg University.

Thought Network’s unique angle on the increasing data problem has granted Andrew Hacker and his company a US patent.

Thought Network is working closely with Harrisburg University

“We’re proud of Andrew’s accomplishments and are honored to have him as a valuable member of Harrisburg University,” says Dr. Eric Darr, the President of Harrisburg University, which is one of Thought’s equity partners. “We came to believe that Mr. Hacker’s technology had significant promise. Therefore, HU has been pleased to financially support the involvement of many computer science students in the further development of the latest Thought Network technology.”

“Mr. Hacker’s patent shows the community that the University supports local people doing great things, and it gives our students a great example of what you can accomplish in the growing field of technology.”

Dr. Darr continued, “The upcoming release of this new technology, Thought Blockchain, and its applications for businesses and consumers in artificial intelligence and analytics represents the bleeding edge of innovation. Harrisburg University looks forward to continuing its work with Mr. Hacker and Thought Network as they continue developing new and valuable technology.”

Building something as complex as Thought requires a dedicated and brilliant team

Thought’s team consists of over 15 well-educated and experienced members, and they have a knowledgeable and impressive board of advisors, ranging from a retired Army Colonel to PhDs in AI, Biochemistry and Computer Science, and many more.

“Coming up with the idea was the easy part, building the technology and taking it to the point it affects the broader scale is the difficult part. But thanks to our incredible team, we have moved at an exponential pace towards the completion of our project. It’s a spectacular thing to witness how we are able to collectively knock down obstacle after obstacle.” Talks Andrew Hacker. “There will always be technical hurdles to overcome, which is exactly why we are doing this – because that part is fun! Whatever hurdles there may be, we are ready!”

Thought ICO

Now, on the final stretch of getting their MVP ready, Thought is launching an ICO on the 1st of March. The ICO will last for one month, with the pre-ICO lasting from 1-13 of March and the ICO taking place from 14-31 of March. Participants in the whitelist receive a 30% bonus, the pre-ICO receive a 15% bonus, and ICO participants gain 5-10% bonus on their token purchase.

“As you know driving adoption isn’t easy. We are spreading the word about Thought by developing partnerships with educational establishments, business organizations and industry experts, building communities around Thought Network concepts and educating developers on building on top of the Thought platform, “, explains Prof. Hacker about how they’ll utilize their funding. “Also, to truly build a widely used and comprehensive platform, we need constant innovation, adding more possibilities and functions. “

Thought Network has a rich native token economy with its native utility token THT. THT is awarded for mining on the Thought blockchain as well as for developing applications and giving access to data streams and repositories. These tokens can be used to purchase information, data insight and to use different data models and applications on the network.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

SINGAPORE, 28 Feb 2018 – The world’s first Blockchain & AI driven Marketplace for love, Viola.AI is the solution to the current dating and relationships challenges worldwide. She will be the first dating and relationship A.I. that evolves with the users to help them in the stages of dating, couple-hood to marriage. Viola.AI will serve users from helping people find love, helping romance blossom, and helping sustain the relationship right till their twilight years.

The team of Viola.AI, who is also behind the dating giant Lunch Actually Group with over 14 years of success record and regional presence in Asia, has sold out their pre-sale 5 days early back in January 2018 and recently clinched The Investors Awards win at the prestigious d10e ICO Pitching Competition in Cayman Islands.

As the next move in a series of major initiatives, Viola.AI announced that it will give the power to the community to choose and vote for the name, look, and persona for its future lifetime A.I Advisor in a campaign targeting the worldwide community.

The campaign is aimed to decentralize and empower the strong and passionate Viola.AI community to decide on the A.I that they will use once the MVP is launched in May 2018.

With this decentralization initiative, the worldwide community will get to choose and vote for the name for their future lifetime A.I Advisor, how she would look, as well as her key personality traits in different cultures and communities.

Co-Founder and CEO of Viola.AI, Violet Lim, said, “Our passionate and growing community is the key driver to the success of our project, and we are thankful to have such dedicated community members who have been very vocal in showing their support and what Viola.AI means to them. We want our A.I to be used by all people from different cultures, different nationalities and different creeds. And that is why we are giving the power and opportunity to our community to let them decide on the name for the World’s Smartest Love Advisor.”

Viola.AI, who is currently gearing towards its public sale on 14 March 2018, will be launching the Community-Choice campaign after the token sale is concluded.

Harnessing on AI, blockchain technology and trustless smart contracts, Viola.AI is equipped with several core capabilities:

The Smartest Love AI:Provides highly personalized matching and discreet relationship advices which evolves according to the user’s relationship status by employing A.I. with personalised machine learning engine and natural language empathy. Viola.AI will be trained by the Group’s 13 years of accumulated service experience, 3500 datasets and 1.1 billion data points.

Real ID verification:Protects users with visual recognition technology. The deployment of decentralized system and blockchain technology enables high security and authentication of users, preventing any identity theft and protecting against data tampering and the infrastructure of Viola.AI.

Community Support:Offers strong community support via crowd wisdom with quality content and advice that addresses user’s enquiry. Viola.AI will reward users for their good and helpful advice.

Recommended-based marketplace: Provides timely recommendations to address each user’s needs for goods and services from merchants, experts and service providers.

Secure smart wallets and contract system: All transactions within Viola.AI are controlled by a secure wallet and smart contracts to ensure that users can interact and transact with contributors and merchants at ease as all parties will receive the agreed-upon revenue share or commissions.

With the strong team of Viola.AI as well as their line-up of ICO Advisors, ranging from serial entrepreneurs, blockchain and investment specialists, to tech investors with huge network, the team is confident to achieve their mission ofchanging the world, one relationship at a timeand positively impacting billions of people worldwide. The company’s co-founders Violet Lim and Jamie Lee have successfully built Asia’s dating giant for the past 14 years and their ICO Advisors include:

Lisa Clampitt, Founder and President of Matchmaking Institute in New York

Dato Larry Gan Nyap Liou, Managing Partner at Accenture for 16 years, invested and worked with innovative technologies

Warren Whitlock, top social influencer in blockchain space

Community users as well as the public can find out more about the community-choice campaign or about Viola.AI at the nextAMA (Ask Me Anything) session on Facebook Live on Friday, 9 Mar 2018 at 9am – 10am (UTC+8)where co-founders Jamie and Violet will answer any questions they might have about the project. Users can join in and ask questions to the team via Telegram or Facebook.

For more information on Viola.AI and to join the whitelist, visitwww.viola.ai

About Viola.AI

Viola.AI is an ever-improving, decentralized and secure A.I. Driven Marketplace that gives data-driven advice, recommendations, concierge and matches to help singles to be effective and efficient in finding love while also helping couples to sustain and better their relationships with their significant other.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

MARK.SPACE, a blockchain powered ecosystem for the creation of all types of VR/3D projects, has just launched their new virtual infrastructure project called CRYPTO.VALLEY. The creators claim that this new project will be a comprehensive and distinctive 3D and VR-compatible virtual city that will serve as an interactive hub of information for the crypto enthusiasts.

28thFebruary, 2018

MARK.SPACE is delighted to announce the mega launch of CRYPTO.VALLEY, a new virtual infrastructure project that promises to be a cynosure of the global crypto community as an interactive and informational pool. In its fully functional form, CRYPTO.VALLEY will be a virtual city completely compatible with the 3D and VR technologies.

MARK.SPACE was unveiled recently as a 3D and VR open source platform, leveraging the power of blockchain technology to deliver a user-friendly tool for the creation and implementation of all types of VR/3D projects. All projects on this unique ecosystem can be accessed through any web-browser, and without using any specialized VR equipment. Moreover, unlike all existing VR platforms, the virtual spaces on this platform can be visited without paying any membership fees. Most importantly, there is no need for the users to understand even the basics of programming to create VR-compatible web-spaces.

With its four thematic districts, viz. shopping, business, residential, and community, MARK.SPACE creates an opportunity for the users to visit virtualized copies of actual locations such as apartments, offices, fan clubs, and fashion boutiques. Business owners and freelancers will be able to utilize this platform to generate an income stream and turn virtual services into sold goods.

The CRYPTO.VALLEY project will be a key component of the MARK.SPACE ecosystem, offering a virtually rendered platform for socioeconomic interactions. There is a high likelihood that this platform will be of much interest to all the key players of the global crypto community including the blockchain developers, crypto-exchanges, foundations and associations, protocols, mining equipment manufacturers, advisors and experts, crypto-bloggers, and gadget showrooms. The MARK.SPACE team is confident that their latest venture will immensely benefit the crypto or blockchain projects, crypto-banks, VCs, crypto funds, and all other crypto enthusiasts.

The MARK.SPACE team, for the ease of understanding, refers to CRYPTO.VALLEY as a “3D and VR-compatible Reddit, BitcoinTalk, KickStarter or Crypto Wikipedia.” The team informs that this platform is intended to help users accumulate advertising traffic and serve as a platform for expertise. The former is particularly important as this will open up a completely new paradigm in terms of audience loyalty and customer satisfaction.

“We believe that the virtual city will soon become the central visual point and reputational playground for crypto businesses and individuals: an opportunity for projects to present themselves in 3D and/or VR format,” said a senior member of the MARK.SPACE team.

MARK.SPACE has just started accepting applications for admission to their just launched Valley community. Interested parties can send in their applications by visiting the new landing page of the project at Crypto-valley.io.

Starting from April, 2018, MARK.SPACE will start theallocation of virtual properties and addresses alongside other districts as per the company’s development roadmap.

About MARK.SPACE:

MARK.SPACE is a new generation of the Internet: compatible websites that, on the one hand are independent (since they have their own domain) and on the other are united by a common transaction and accounting system on the Blockchain and a global search engine. In addition, any user can visit and even have his own the 3D / VR / AR (virtual reality / augmented reality) space inside the universe MARK.SPACE for free.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Skychain Global, for the first time in Russia, has successfully conducted a test of the artificial intelligence system for medical diagnostics, comparing the number of errors committed by the living doctors. This infrastructure blockchain project is aimed at helping doctors and patients have accurate diagnoses.

28thFebruary, 2018

Skychain Global is pleased to reveal that they have just concluded a test of their artificial intelligence system by comparing the number of errors committed by the living doctors while carrying out medical diagnostics. Interestingly, this is the first ever test of its kind to be conducted in Russia. An infrastructure blockchain project, Skychain is dedicated to providing an infrastructure to radically increase the efficiency of healthcare AI development and training.

There is no denying the fact that the field of medical sciences have experienced significant progress over the years. However, human beings are not perfect, and hence, are prone to errors. Unfortunately, just like many years ago, doctors still make mistakes in medical diagnosis. Recent statistical figures suggest that medical errors are the third most common cause of death in the US, after old age and oncology. As an example, it has been argued that doctors fail to diagnose 70% of lung cancer of the first stage on a radiograph.

Experts suggest that the groundbreaking AI technology can help detect a very high percentage of cases that even the best of human doctors fail to diagnose. Skychain Global is in the process of developing a platform on the blockbuster that promises to drastically increase the efficiency and accuracy of artificial intelligence in medicine, by securely uniting all participants in the process of building computer intelligence. The core idea of ​​Skychain is to unite a single smart contract between the owners of big-data in the field of medicine, AI developers and consumers.

Skychain was founded by a successful businessman in the field of IT, with support from experts in the field of artificial intelligence and healthcare partners across the globe. The project team has already developed a prototype system and published its source code on GitHub. On February 20, the prototype system was tested in diagnostics. A few neural networks hosted on Skychain diagnosed melanoma, breast cancer, and heart diseases more accurately compared to the human doctors.

Interestingly, the system was found to deliver wrong results for 4% to 14% of cases, compared to 18% to 32% of cases diagnosed wrongly by the doctors. Moreover, Skychain spent an average of 0.1 seconds for each diagnosis, while the doctors required around 20-30 seconds. The findings of the test clearly indicate that the advent of artificial intelligence in medicine will save the lives of millions of people every year.

The testing of the Skychain Global system was carried out under the active participation of several top notch doctors, medical professionals, and healthcare professionals.

“Your developments are very relevant; they will be primarily useful for screening,” said Volgin Valeriy Nikolaevich, Doctor of Medical Sciences, professor, and dermatologist.

“A modern, unique project, which has no analogues in practical medicine. The project provides a preliminary assessment of the pathological process in different branches of medicine with artificial intelligence,” feels Ovsyannikova Maria Romanovna, a renowned doctor, pathologist, oncomorphologist, and forensic medical expert. “This function can be used by both patients and practitioners. The development of such technologies is necessary and inevitable in modern medicine.”

Another top notch doctor and anaesthesiology, resuscitation, and ECG diagnostics expert Golikov Maxim Alekseevich said, “At a minimum, similar studies involving artificial intelligence are ancillary support for the doctor. The program issues a decision that can draw the doctor’s attention, and perhaps make a different decision.”

Highlighting her experience of participating in the trial, noted dermatologist Sadovskaya Maria Valeryevna said, “The competition of doctors with artificial intelligence is quite a new thing for us. For me, the assignment was not difficult, but very useful. It was nice that dermatologists responded best and at the end I just lost 2 points to artificial intelligence.”

In its initial stage, Skychain Global is focused solely on medical diagnostics with the help of AI at the level of the doctors. However, the accumulation of medical big-data in a single ecosystem of machine learning promises to provide unprecedented opportunities in the near future. AI can estimate the effectiveness of drugs and treatment regimens based on a billion case histories, independently discover new diseases, develop the most effective treatment regimens for a particular patient, and even, perhaps, develop new drugs and approaches. Skychain project can make this a reality by uniting all in a single ecosystem offering a huge array of medical data available for training neural networks.

About Skychain Global:

Skychain is an infrastructure blockchain project aimed to host, train and use artificial neural networks (ANNs) by market participants. In its initial phase, the project will be devoted only to medicine to help doctors and patients have accurate diagnoses using this system. Each member of the ecosystem will provide his/her resources and thus create a product that is ahead of any competitor’s. In its turn, the system will reward each participant with high benefits.

This is a sponsored press release and does not necessarily reflect the opinions or views held by any employees of The Merkle. This is not investment, trading, or gambling advice. Always conduct your own independent research.

Car owners in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates will soon be able to track their vehicles entire life history, thanks to a government-backed blockchain platform.

What’s Your Car’s Story?

According to Arabian Business, the transportation authority of Dubai has unveiled plans to create a blockchain-based vehicle management system, allowing owners to track their vehicle throughout the duration of its existence — from its construction to its destruction.

Initially, the blockchain-powered platform will only track all cars in Dubai, but later stages will launch coverage for all cars in the United Arab Emirates — effectively unifying vehicle information across the sovereign state.

The Roads and Transport Authority claims the system will launch sometime in 2020.

The RTA’s chairman and executive director, Mattar Al Tayer, hopes the new blockchain-powered system will be the first government-launched platform in the world offering such a service while helping secure car markets — as well as the entire automobile industry. He toldArabian Business:

Blockchain provides a transparent record to the entire business network, allowing buyers and sellers of each vehicle to track where the vehicle is in its lifecycle. The platform benefits many stakeholders including car manufacturers, dealers, regulators, insurance companies, buyers, sellers and even garages, providing transparency and trust in vehicle transactions, preventing disputes and lowering the cost of services. It tracks ownership, sale, and accident history to create smart, more efficient systems for supply chains.

Dubai’s transportation authority will work with American multinational technology giant IBM, who will consult on the project’s strategy. According to Arabian Business, Dubai Customs, Dubai Police, the Dubai Department of Economic Development, the Emirates Authority For Standardization and Metrology, Emirates ID, and the Ministry of Interior are also set to partner with the vehicle tracking platform.

The blockchain-based project comes as part of the Dubai 10X Initiative, which aims to make Dubai Government entities 1o years more advanced than the rest of the world in every way, shape, and form. The initiative was launched at last years 5th World Government Summit by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, chairman of the Dubai Executive Council.

If the Dubai 10X Initiative seeks to successfully push the emirate 10 years into the future, the blockchain is certainly the way to go.

Do you think the Dubai and the UAE are pushing themselves into the future with this blockchain-based project? Let us know in the comments below!

Germany won't tax bitcoin users for using the cryptocurrency as a means of payment, the Ministry of Finance has said.

The guidance, published Tuesday, sets Germany apart from the U.S., where the Internal Revenue Service treats bitcoin as property for tax purposes - which means that if an American buys a cup of coffee with bitcoin, it's technically considered a sale of property and potentially subject to capital gains tax.

Instead, Germany will regard bitcoin as the equivalent to legal tender for tax purposes when used as a means of payment, according to a new document.

The Bundesministerium der Finanzen based its guidance on a 2015 European Union Court of Justice ruling on value added taxes (VAT).

The court ruling creates a precedent for European Union nations to tax bitcoin while providing exemptions for certain types of transactions.

Notably, the new German document justified its tax decisions by regarding cryptocurrencies a legal method for payment, stating:

"Virtual currencies (cryptocurrencies, e.g., Bitcoin) become the equivalent to legal means of payment, insofar as these so-called virtual currencies of those involved in the transaction as an alternative contractual and immediate means of payment have been accepted."

For tax purposes, this means that converting bitcoin into a fiat currency or vice versa is "a taxable miscellaneous benefit." When a buyer of goods pays with bitcoin, an article of the EU's VAT Directive will be applied to the price of bitcoin at the time of the transaction, as documented by the seller, according to the document.

However, as per the EU ruling, the actual act of converting a cryptocurrency to fiat or vice versa is classified as a "supply of services," and therefore a party acting as an intermediary for the exchange will not be taxed.

Payment fees sent to digital wallet providers or other services can likewise also be taxed, according to the document.

Other aspects of the cryptocurrency ecosystem will not be taxed. Miners who receive block rewards will not be taxed, as their services are considered to be voluntary, according to the document.

Similarly, exchange operators that buy or sell bitcoin in their own name as an intermediary will receive a tax exemption, though an exchange operating as a technical marketplace will not receive any such exemption.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@coindesk.com.

Over the weekend, various high-level security researchers and academic cryptographers gave cryptocurrency project IOTA a failing grade – exposing a critical weakness and suggesting investors sell their coins while asking researchers to ignore or abandon the project.

‘Extremely Embarrassing’

The controversy began after a series of once-private emails from various IOTA team members and a group of external security researchers was leaked, putting on display the developers’ apathy and arrogance towards a critical flaw in IOTA’s foundation.

First and foremost, Boston University Ethan Heilman discovered that IOTA’s in-house hash function, titled Curl, was broken. Heilman and other researchers from the Digital Currency Initiative published a report exposing the flaw — and the team at IOTA didn’t like that.

If you want a postcard summary of why you should avoid the Iota project — with your brains and your money — this conversation is it. pic.twitter.com/lc8pR41M2W

The leaked emails in response to the published report show an uncooperative team at IOTA dispute the researchers’ claims by calling it fraudulent. IOTA Co-founder Sergey Ivancheglo even immaturely threatened legal action against Heilman on Twitter:

Many IOTA fans have come to the defense of the project, but there can be little doubt that IOTA has temporarily — if not permanently — lost the support of the academic research community. Trail of Bits CEO Dan Guido told IEEE:

I think the emails were extremely embarrassing for the IOTA project. They should convince anyone that IOTA lacks the technical leadership or, simply, the maturity to build their product.

Other academic researchers have come to Heilman’s defense, many of which have announced their intention to boycott the project. Said University of Athens Ph.D. candidate Dionysis Zindros:

Given the shameful behavior of the IOTA organization against Matthew Green and Ethan Heilman threatening legal action against reputable researchers, I pledge not to responsibly disclose any security findings I've been looking into regarding IOTA and urge people to stop using it.

IOTA is one of the most successful cryptocurrencies in the emerging market, currently ranked 10th by market cap. At press time, IOTA coins (MIOTA) are trading at $1.93 apiece, and the cryptocurrency has a total market cap of $5,355,265,406. The price of MIOTA has remained relatively stable this far, despite the controversy.

Nevertheless, the leaked communications have also shown a brighter light on what many consider to be a rather-centralized form of “decentralized” cryptocurrency. As noted by IEEE, IOTA primarily relies on the activities of a “coordinator,” or central operator. As such, the IOTA team has worked hard to make their project far from transparent.

Rick Dudley, a New York City-based blockchain architecture advisor and consultant, told IEEE:

Basically, what they have done is written some source and papers that only describe part of the system. The rest of the system is secret. Which is completely antithetical to blockchains.

On Monday, IOTA issued a statement in which they “unequivocally condemn this leak.” Oh, by the way, they also reportedly fixed the issue they referred to as “fraudulent.” Good to know that the non-issue issue has been fixed.

Do you think this recent controversy has raised legitimate questions regarding the maturity of IOTA’s leadership? Have you lost faith in the project, or could you care less? Let us know in the comments below!

Cryptocurrency represents an environment that is constantly growing and changing. As this ecosystem evolves and becomes increasingly complex, so does the jargon used most frequently in conversation. Acronyms play a large role in cryptocurrency dialogue, and without knowledge of the terms they refer to, it can be difficult to follow the information being shared. Here are ten of the most popular cryptocurrency acronyms that everyone should have knowledge of.

10. OTC

“Over the counter” refers to a method of trading that bypasses an exchange service. With OTC trading, buyers and sellers instead agree upon an exchange rate for a set amount of currency and, often with the help of a trusted third-party escrow, transact with one another directly. OTC trading is often prevalent among teams buying or selling to and from large, private investors, so as to not disrupt the market for their coin.

Before RaiBlocks was listed on an exchange, it was traded OTC on Bitcointalk for over a year.

9. GPU

A graphics processing unit is a computer component traditionally responsible for rapid and efficient creation and display of images, and often utilized to aid in PC gaming. However, GPUs play a very important role in a number of cryptocurrencies that utilize Proof-of-Work algorithms geared toward the processing strategies imposed by GPUs. As a result, there has been much tension lately between gamers and cryptocurrency miners, as the growth of cryptocurrency has led to an unprecedented demand for GPUs, which caused a shortage of units available to gamers as well as rapidly increasing costs for the hardware that is available.

I have just assembled my GPU mining rig, which I will use to mine Ethereum and Monero.

8. ATH

An all time high is the absolute maximum price that a coin has attained. It can be expressed in terms of either BTC or USD. Of course, one of the greatest feelings in cryptocurrency trading is holding a coin until it achieves a new ATH. Alternatively, seeing a coin drop significantly from its ATH for a sustained period of time is one of the worst feelings.

If Bitcoin can appreciate past US$20,000, it will achieve a new ATH.

7. DEX

Decentralized exchanges are often referred to as the future of cryptocurrency trading. As traditional, centralized exchanges have continually failed its users due to hacks, poor support, lack of scaling, regulatory changes, and other issues, much of the cryptocurrency community has looked to DEX solutions as structural fixes to these perpetual issues. On a DEX, buyers and sellers maintain ownership of their funds, and the DEX simply serves as a facilitator of direct trades between buyers and sellers.

The Counterparty DEX sees a lot of activity from Pepecash users exchanging Rare Pepes with one another.

6. BCH

Bitcoin Cash, and more specifically, its acronym, have been the subject of much controversy. There has been a popular campaign by BCH skeptics to refer to the Bitcoin fork as BCash, rather than Bitcoin Cash. This has sparked much backlash from Bitcoin Cash supporters and even the CEO of the coin, Roger Ver, who view the BCash campaign as a malicious attack on the BCH community.

I can’t believe I was able to receive so much Bitcoin from the BCH I received after the fork!

5. FUD

“Fear, uncertainty and doubt” refers to the practices of bad actors to drive the price of a coin down for one reason or another. FUD often takes the form of misconstrued or even blatantly incorrect news shared to convince holders of a coin to sell off their holdings. For example, the false news spread about China banning Bitcoin was FUD.

Don’t listen to this troll telling you X is going to fail. He is only spreading FUD!

4. FOMO

The fear of missing out represents the inverse of FUD, as it is a similar practice employed to instead drive the price of a coin upwards. FOMO takes the form of hype, both natural and orchestrated, breaking news, and sharp price movements. FOMO is blamed as the driving force behind unsuccessful investors purchasing a coin at its ATH, who are then stuck with a bag of a coin they likely didn’t do enough research on that is now worth far less than the initial investment.

The 50% jump in the past hour can be attributed to FOMO setting in following the huge announcement from earlier today.

3. ICO

ICO, or Initial coin offering, is perhaps the most widely spread acronym in cryptocurrency. ICO represents the crowdfunding approach to launches and relaunches of cryptocurrencies. For a majority of new projects, their future success is primarily dependent upon the results of their ICO. While there was once a time when the ICO tag carried a negative connotation, the overwhelming use of this system now overshadows the criticisms of skeptics of this approach to funding.

The year-long EOS ICO is the largest to date, and has raised close to US$1 billion.

2. BTFD

“Buy the F***ing Dip” is a trading method that simply involves buying a coin that has just seen a sharp drop. Coins that experience these dips are often referred to as oversold, likely due to a piece of FUD that had a large influence. However, sometimes these dips are natural, and those people who BTFD can still find themselves at a loss, forced to instruct the next wave of buyers to BTFD at the next drop. The fiery connotation is largely attributed to the sentiment that supporters of a coin are passionate about seeing its price recover as soon as possible.

Ethereum dipped 20% due to FUD news. Tomorrow the price will be back to normal, so now is the time to BTFD.

1. DYOR

“Do your own research” is perhaps the most universal advice throughout cryptocurrency trading, and in a broader context, investing in general. DYOR suggests that financial decisions should take place only after the individual uses due diligence to DYOR so they can be sure they are not being manipulated by FUD, FOMO, or some other act of spreading malicious or simply misguided information. The one commonality among all successful traders is they all take the time to DYOR.

I think that this coin is a great investment and has a great future. However, I advise you to DYOR before you make any decisions.

Bonus: Hodl

Hodl is technically not an acronym. Its origin is a drunken Bitcointalk forum post from December 2013 as the BTC price was crashing from the then-ATH of about US$1,000. Since that post, hodl became a joke spread throughout the entire community, and its prevalence has not ceased since. Recently, a sentiment has developed that suggests HODL stands for “hold on for dear life”. While this is not historically accurate, it does align with the context in which it is often used throughout the community. Hodl has even gained notoriety as the content behind a popular rap parody, HODL GANG.

The new subsidiary, Genesis Global Capital, will allow investors and businesses to borrow cryptocurrencies in quantities of $100,000 or more for fixed terms ranging from two weeks to six months. Loans will be issued in bitcoin, ether, ether classic, XRP, bitcoin cash and zcash among others.

"We believe now is a great time to offer an institutional-focused lending service because it will increase general liquidity in the marketplace, encourage new financial institutions to participate in a two-sided market and increase the working capital that companies use to scale their digital currency-centric businesses," Genesis Capital said in a press release.

The company suggests that investors could use its lending capacity to "hedge total portfolio risk or take speculative short positions," but it also envisions other use cases for the service.

One such example, the company explained in the statement, could be remittance companies that "need to make immediate settlements to their customers, but don't want to buy a large balance of bitcoin and hold that risk on their books."

Genesis Capital has already attracted notable clients such as BlockTower Capital, an existing client of the parent trading company, and DV Chain, a crypto trading firm.

"The majority of trading volume in several cryptocurrencies is denominated in bitcoin, which has created a need for a bitcoin lending market," DV Chain CEO Garrett SEE told CNBC.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@coindesk.com.

Square Inc. has identified another business risk for publicly traded companies that deal in cryptocurrencies: unclear accounting rules.

In its most recent annual filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the digital payments company wrote that Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP), the U.S. accounting standard for public companies, offers no specific guidance for cryptocurrencies. This makes it difficult for Square to know how to report its profits or losses from cryptocurrency transactions.

Moreover, the document suggested that auditors or regulators could disagree with how Square accounted for cryptocurrencies. The filing continued:

"The accounting can be complex and subject to challenge or scrutiny. The final conclusions on the accounting treatment for our cryptocurrency transactions could affect the presentation of our results of operations."

In other words, if Square gets it wrong, then the company may have to restate its financials, which could hurt its stock price or operations.

Last month, the payment platform introduced bitcoin buying and selling to most states through the Cash App, allowing users to send payments in the cryptocurrency to friends and family, as previously reported.

Other risks

Additionally, Square also noted other regulatory difficulties that could arise from its bitcoin buy/sell feature.

In its filing, Square said that it does not think its bitcoin service qualifies as offering securities to its customers, meaning it should not fall under state or federal securities regulations.

Similarly, the company does not see itself as a broker-dealer or investment advisor as defined by U.S. securities laws, or as a commodities dealer.

While Square believes these conclusions are accurate, "the regulation of cryptocurrency and crypto platforms is still an evolving area and it is possible that a court or a federal or state regulator could disagree with one or more of these conclusions," the company wrote.

"If we fail to comply with regulations or prohibitions applicable to us, we could face regulatory or other enforcement actions and potential fines and other consequences," the company went on. "Further, we might not be able to continue operating the feature, at least in current form, and to the extent that the feature is viewed by the market as a valuable asset to Square, the price of our Class A common stock could decrease."

Square is one of several prominent financial services companies that have added discussions of crypto, blockchain or distributed ledger technology to the "risk factors" sections of their annual filings this month. Others include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs.

Companies often take a "kitchen sink" approach to these passages, including a variety risks that they may consider remote - but material enough to warrant investors' attention.

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@coindesk.com.

Even with the crypto revolution gaining more and more momentum by the day, there still seems to be a tangible knowledge gap within this sphere. For example, many people are still not clear as to what the blockchain and crypto assets really are.

Life was quite simple when Bitcoin stood as the lone blockchain, because it allowed the words cryptocurrency and blockchain to be used interchangeably. However, with the maturing of the crypto ecosystem, a large number of blockchains have flourished and become entities unto themselves.

A lot of confusion has ensued, since the term blockchain is now also used within contexts pertaining to P2P delivery systems and decentralized registries, and as a result of this, the word has found use within a host of crypto avenues.

The Blockchain In depth

The blockchain can be visualized as a decentralized system that consists of an array of participants who are motivated to perform actions within the parent ecosystem depending upon the incentives that are provided to them.

When we look at the functional capacity of the blockchain, we can clearly see that this technology is slightly hampered by issues related to the Byzantine Fault Tolerance conundrum.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT) is a term that describes the capacity of a digital system to resist faults that are incurred when an electronic component failure is observed during the transfer of data.

Since blockchains are decentralized ledgers, they are not controlled by any singular authority or power figure. Thus, there is a chance that third-party miscreants could cause faults within the system as there is real value to be found in these ledgers. Additionally, when BFT is missing, there is a chance of false transactions circulating within the ecosystem, thereby reducing the reliability of the blockchain.

However, with the advent of Bitcoin, this problem has been severely curtailed. This has occurred primarily due to a protocol called the Proof-of-Work (PoW). It was designed by Satoshi Nakamoto to serve as a probabilistic solution to the Byzantine issue. In fact, there is ane-mailfrom Satoshi himself in which he discusses this problem in quite a lot of detail.

Why does Bitcoin get so much attention?

Apart from being the first cryptocurrency to enter the digital asset market, Bitcoin also sets the benchmark when it comes to providing users with a host of functional features. To back up a bit, this currency was created by a person (or persons) who goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto.

Satoshi first proposed the idea of Bitcoin all the way back in 2008, envisioning this currency to serve as an electronic payment service based entirely on mathematical proofs. The end goal was to create an asset exchange route that was not dependent on centralized institutions such as banks, but which would still be verifiable and secure.

To start off, we can see that Bitcoin is able to largely eliminate problems related to double-spending thanks to the fact that its base layer transactions are immutable and cannot be reversed once they have been executed on the blockchain.

Similarly, it makes use of “confirmation protocols” which require all of the involved parties to validate a transaction, thereby restricting double spending frauds.

Final thoughts

With the blockchain revolution now in full swing, it is quite important to educate potential investors and enthusiasts about the crypto domain as a whole. This will not only help remove common doubts pertaining to this field but will also allow users to make smarter investment choices in the future.

Our time is one of distrust. A time when for each product there are thousands of scams aimed at deceiving users. According to the British report Annual Fraud Indicator, fraud causes massive damage to both private individuals and corporations. For example, in the UK individuals lost 140 billion pounds in 2017, while businesses lost about 40.4 billion pounds. For this reason, there are more stringent requirements for verification of data, requests, and documents. On one hand, this protects the user, but it also makes it much harder to undergo verification for those who, for whatever reason, cannot leave their homes.

This is where the new project Verifier comes in. The general concept is that from anywhere in the world you can access services to verify your identity, receive products, check information, and perform other actions requiring a verified person. Verifier agents will solve everything for you.

Verifier is an innovative verification technology appropriate for any kind of transaction, data transmission, or event. The speed, clarity, and security of this service is ensured by blockchain.

Simple Verification

All the services will be accessible through your smartphone after simply installing the app. The model is somewhat similar to the approach taken by ride-hailing services, where transactions are made directly between the customers and the service providers.

“Verifier exists as an end product, either as a mobile app or browser version, but what is more interesting is its potential as an open-source solution,” comments Alexander Dmitriev, the project’s CEO. “That is when the client can scale and change the system’s functionality to fit the requirements of their specific business. What matters is the result: accurate, fast, simple, and affordable confirmation of events, actions, and identities.”

This kind of service would be in demand both in the corporate sector and by individuals. In the former case, the primary customers would by financial-sector companies who need to comply with KYC procedures. In the latter case, it would be for people who do not want to be tied down to a specific location, but also want to have remote access and to receive services.

Now, you can trust, but verify – with Verifier!

How Does It Work?

The blockchain service Verifier is based on the secure transfer of data within the system, using a chain of linked transaction blocks. The token issuance is intended to fund the launch and subsequent scaling of the verification service. Verifier Tokens (VRF) are Ethereum-based smart contracts.

Token Distribution

The total number of tokens in the system is 6,050,000. One token is equal to the minimum cost of a verification request in the Verifier ecosystem. 1 VRF = 10 USD. Therefore, the cost of receiving a loan at a bank or confirming an accident for an insurance claim will now cost about 10 USD.

When designing the service, the team gave a lot of thought to setting the price. After a thorough analysis of the verification sector, a decision was reached to enter the market with a more competitive offer than what is offered by current suppliers: the minimum price for conducting one verification is not to exceed 10 US dollars, while subsequent prices will depend on agreements between the customer and the provider.

The crowdsale will take place in two phases. The Pre-ICO has already been launched, and only a limited number of VRF will be offered during it, with a discount for early investors. The majority of the tokens will be offered in April of this year, as part of the main selling phase, the ICO.

STK Introduction

The speed with which cryptocurrencies has entered the public consciousness over the past couple of years has been remarkable. In order to take the next step though, and gain widespread acceptance and use, the technology needs to be able to handle point of sales (POS) transactions. Once cryptocurrencies overcome the technical hurdles of settling some of the $22 trillion spent globally by consumers each year, their use will become ubiquitous. The major hurdle is one of time lag. The average confirmation time for a Bitcoin transaction is 10 minutes, far too long for everyday use. Even the 24 seconds that your average Ethereum transaction takes to settle is too long for POS purchases.

The STK platform, implemented through the STK wallet has developed the infrastructure to allow much faster transactions. It is built around their own digital multicurrency wallet, a liquidity pool of fiat currencies, and a system of opening individual State Channels for each transaction. The ecosystem is powered by STK tokens, their proprietary ERC20-compliant cryptocurrency registered to the Ethereum blockchain.

Risk Warning: The cryptocurrency investment is a venture capital deal, it has 7 x 24 hours trading business model with no market close time. Please pay more attention to risky investment. KuCoin holds a strict system of censorship about all tokens deal, but we never take any liability for the investment behavior.

Two first-time cryptocurrency investors shared their stories with The National on Wednesday, which illustrate that Bitcoin indeed isn’t the get-rich-quick scheme many people mistakenly believe.

‘ … What I Made, I Then Lost’

First up is a Pakistani investor named Mohammed, who first invested in the Bitcoin market in December 2017. Mohammed toldThe National:

I invested $10,000, made 30 percent and sold a week later. Then I put the whole $13,000 in again a few days later.

Mohammed then took out his money when the steep correction began in January. By then, however, it was too late. He’d already lost the 30 percent he initially made.

Not to be deterred, Mohammed took his chances on Bitcoin again after Chicago’s CME Group launched its Bitcoin futures contract in December. The results were not what he anticipated. Mohammed explained:

I knew that would give the currency respectability and there would be a flood of people buying for fear of missing out. It was a chance to make some money but what I made, I then lost. It was fun but I will never go near that stuff again.

Mohammed’s story illustrates an important point which is lost on many digital currency investors looking to get rich quick — Bitcoin and other well-established cryptocurrencies like Ethereum, Litecoin, and Ripple won’t make you rich overnight. Rather, they’re long-term investments whose use cases have yet to be fully explored and utilized.

We’ve all heard stories of people who’ve mortgaged their house, bet big on Bitcoin, and then made massive gains. For each of those lucky gamblers, however, there is a sea of unlucky investors who’ve found themselves left holding the bag after buying in at all-time highs or not doing their due diligence. Don’t be the latter.

‘It Was a Bit Scary… ‘

The second individual who shared their story with The National is Fred, a British communications executive residing in Dubai, who actually took the time to study up on Bitcoin. He bought into the digital currency in November when it was $9,000 per coin, explaining:

I was very skeptical about the links with purchasing on the dark web and the lack of security with a central bank. But the more I read up on Bitcoin, blockchain and other cryptocurrencies, I realized it was more likely to have an impact in the future of business and offered a genuine and secure opportunity for peer-to-peer lending without the need for expensive fees or currency transfer rates.

Fred first invested $900, which he built up to $4,000. He, like many others, lost most of that when the correction hit. Fred explained:

When it spiked to $20,000 briefly, I thought about selling. Then it started to crash so I sold some at $15,000, with the profits paying for Christmas. It was a bit scary when it went as low as $5,000. There isn’t much history of cryptos to go on, but what there is suggests January usually sees a crash/correction and then a recovery, which is what’s happening now. I bought some more when it rose back […] so I’ve got about a third of a coin.

Still, Fred’s down overall — but has the right attitude about it, telling The National:

Bitcoin is not far off returning to a price that will give me a profit again. It isn’t for the faint-hearted but I’ve got a clear figure in mind for its value when I exit. It’s a fun ride, but I’m aware it could all disappear overnight.

By doing your research, having a sound plan, and refraining from investing money you can’t afford to lose, you too can ensure your Bitcoin investments are “a fun ride.”

What do you think of these two UAE investors’ stories? Let us know in the comments below!

On Tuesday, Microsoft co-founder and avid philanthropist Bill Gates participated in an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) session on Reddit, where users of the site present questions on any topic for the billionaire to answer. Among questions of coding semantics and peanut butter sandwiches, one Redditor asked for Gates’ opinion on cryptocurrency.

Redditor /u/Askur1337 asked Gates for his take on cryptocurrencies, to which Gates provided several sentences explaining why he has adopted an unsupportive approach to the recent craze. While many may assume that the technology magnate recognizes the massive potential of cryptocurrency, Gates takes a much more pragmatic view on the emerging tech.

Another Redditor, /u/dikkepiemel, reminded Gates that the US Dollar is also used to purchase illegal drugs. Gates responded that USD is different, as physical transactions remove a level of anonymity from the transactions. Things such as “kidnapping payments” are more difficult when they require a real world exchange, according to Gates.

Gates also commented on the recent proliferation of Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). He sees these new investments as “super risky for those who go long”. It’s evident that Gates has a complete lack of faith in the futures of these new cryptocurrencies.

This negative perception comes as a surprise to veteran cryptocurrency enthusiasts, who likely remember positive remarks made by former richest man in the world several years ago. In a 2014 Bloomberg interview, Gates considered Bitcoin to be “better than currency”, citing values such as speed, cost, and virtuality of the first cryptocurrency.

In 2015, his optimism showed again, when speaking on cryptocurrencies in a Blackchannel interview. He reiterated his earlier sentiments on Bitcoin, but also hinted at the need for other cryptocurrencies to aid the growth of the Bitcoin movement. “We need things to draw on the revolution of Bitcoin,” said Gates.

Given his recent change of heart, it’s very likely that the hype and manipulation associated with the massive growth of cryptocurrency within the past year has made Gates wary of the value of blockchain technology. Either way, similar views have been shared for years by other powerful individuals. It is unlikely that such comments will have a lasting effect on the future of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as a whole.